[OSList] OST / Gaming

Thu Oct 24 13:38:13 PDT 2013

Anne – I noticed your pebble! And I think you are dead right. Magnificent, complex, living systems simply defy capture in a single frame. It isn’t their problem, it is the problem of our language... always too small to do the job. But I don’t see that as a “problem” either. For me it is really an opportunity and an invitation to keep framing and reframing. It just gets richer, and the conversation continues. I think we only get in trouble when we (whoever “we” is) get stuck in the “one right way” syndrome. Even controversy is valuable, if only because it offers the chance to refine our pictures. And best of all, allows us to hold several pictures at the same time... especially when they are contradictory. Sort of the Wave and Particle kind of thing. It is always tempting to ask which one is the right one? And the answer is clearly, Both. It just depends on how you are looking at things. Marvelous!

All that said, I do have to confess to being a died in the wool, American Pragmatist. I can usually always see the value of somebody else’s picture, but then I have to ask – What does it do? What does it do to enable me to perform some needed function, understand my current reality with greater clarity, get on with the business, so to speak. I also find it useful to combine pragmatism with a good dose of Occam’s Razor – AKA The Law of Parsimony. There are lots of ways of describing the “law” – but it could be, “How can you say the most with the fewest words?” 

I suppose that is just academic obfuscation... but it does have a lot to do with our current discussion of Gaming (Game theory, Finite and Infinite Games, etc). I know a fair amount of the literature, have used the approach in multiple situations creating policy and practice... and I still don’t understand how it advances our understanding of our world as encountered in Open Space, and more specifically, how it enables me to more effectively navigate that world for myself, and with others, who may choose the journey. Doubtless this is a case of the hardening of the senile neuro-pathways, but that is where I is.

Thanks for the Pebble!

Harrison

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 04843

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

www.openspaceworld.com 

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of ANNE BENNETT
Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2013 2:21 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] OST / Gaming

Jenifer

I have loved your last two posts - they resonate very beautifully for me - I think maybe the streams and torrents of discourse are like blood flowing (and the extraverts' need for noise) in the OS corps. You and me (a lurky introvert - I would bang on about silence in OS but oddly it doesnt transalte!) are maybe just two of 100s in teh OS list who benignly get sprayed as the flow passes

I will risk a pebble (most of mine drop straight to the silt unnoticed) - which is (hopefully uncontroversial) that we are in a complex system here (life) and all frames are intriguing - how we make them, get stuck by them, cant see them, dont know they are there, misunderstand each others', have endless renaissance and revitalisation - like Hollywood remakes - sometimes you wonder - why? But if it sells/belongs to a new crew. Actually, lets have a controversy (chewy word)

Anne

From: Jenifer Toksvig <never at acompletelossforwords.com>
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> 
Sent: Thursday, 24 October 2013, 18:50
Subject: Re: [OSList] OST / Gaming

Dan: I have no spiritual beliefs. Honestly, I don’t even know what that is.

I think sometimes people make connections with one another, and sometimes people make connections with themselves, for all kinds of reasons. I think we’re all ultimately self-concerned, for all kinds of reasons.

Trying to explain those things through story is part of connecting. Trying to define those things through story is partly rejecting.

I like OST because it is not story, but rather, it is the way things are. It neither connects nor rejects.

It isn’t interested in me. It doesn’t ask me to be interested in it.

It is not possible to challenge it, or bend the rules, or break it. Nor can I see a reason why anyone would want to. 

Frankly, I am always surprised that there is anything to talk about on the OS list. I return here after a break, and think: why are you people not just sharing recipes?

It’s not like I’m surprised people don’t get it. I’m just surprised people want to add to it. Sometimes I want to say “Seriously, what are you *discussing*? It’s OS. Now, who knows a good warm winter stew recipe?”

It is what it is. So is life. I will live, and things will happen, and I will die, and that is what it is. It’s not possible to challenge it, or bend the rules, or break it. Nor can I see a reason why I would want to. If you like: Life isn’t interested in me, and it doesn’t ask me to be interested in it.

I have no spiritual beliefs. Honestly, I don’t even know what that is.

Jen x 

Jenifer Toksvig
www.acompletelossforwords.com

The Copenhagen Interpretation
www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk

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